Letter: Please stop adding to the riverbed cleanup problem
To the editor,
–When I think about the resources the city expends in the riverbed every single day to clean it up and keep us safe from fire, it is literally millions in police, fire, independent clean-up companies, and dump fees.
And how about the volunteer organizations like Earth Shine who donate their time and energy cleaning up our trails? Find out from your favorite homeless charity exactly what they need. It’s usually coats, socks, shoes, underwear, toiletries, and blankets. Then stick to those things. Or donate money for them to use where needed.
Those bags of miscellaneous items of clothing are not what they need and it just becomes a huge part of what has to be hauled away. And to those who dump their old mattresses alongside the road, what are you thinking? Drive your lazy self to the landfill and pay a couple of bucks to dump it. Or take your mattress here: https://www.facebook.com/NorthCountyChristianThriftShop/ (9330 El Camino in Atascadero) It’s free and the city thanks you.
We’ve all seen the pictures of the massive cleanup efforts. We can lessen that burden on our city by choosing carefully what and to whom we give. If you don’t think of it in money, then think of it in terms of keeping your community safe.
The less trash down there, the less time and money our emergency services have to spend on cleanup and more time spent protecting our town. The best way to help the unhoused in our community is to donate what’s really needed to the organizations that actually help them.
Jan Albin
Paso Robles
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